better weapon for any other jungle game; the vulnerable, or more properly speaking the vital, parts of a tiger or leopard present a mark which must be deemed small when the excitement-perhaps not unmingled with something like fear-attending the rencontre is taken into consideration; and when engaged with such animals, precision of aim is essential to the personal safety of the sportsman. We give Major Forbes's description of another kind of sport-he is speaking of the interior of Ceylon : 66 Wild buffaloes, though commonly found in the thinly inhabited districts of the flat country, are very rarely seen near the mountains; they are strong and fierce, and the form of their head is such that a ball fired against it is apt to glance off. For this reason, sportsmen accustomed to buffaloshooting prefer aiming at the shoulder; and, to insure a fair shot, the best way is for two persons to place themselves so that one may be opposite to the side of the animal when it charges at the other in front. A wild buffalo, intending to attack any one, advances in a curved line, with the head down and inclined sideways, in such a manner that one horn is advanced. Their courage and perseverance in attack are as remarkable as their tenacity of life; therefore, good guns of a large size are quite as necessary in buffalo as in elephant shooting." In 1826, it was found necessary to destroy an elephant in Exeter 'Change. A detachment of foot guards was called in, and directed by surgeons where to fire; and 152 rounds of ammunition were expended before the animal was disabled. This proves how utterly ineffectual the leaden musket ball, as used by soldiers, would be in the forest. We have not the means of deciding whether the difficulty which was experienced in killing that elephant, is attributable to the inefficiency of the weapons employed, or to the want of skill in the storming party. Major Forbes hints that the affair often proved a subject of mirth to the sportsmen in Ceylon; and certainly it was calculated to do so, if a single individual on foot allows a wild elephant to charge within fifteen yards of him before firing at him. Captain Cornwallis Harris, in his South African tour, in 1837, took with him a double-barrelled rifle, carrying balls of two ounces weight, and thus armed, the elephant and rhinoceros alike fell before him. Speaking of the forehead of the elephant, he says, "A ball hardened with tin or quicksilver readily penetrates to the brain, and proves instantaneously fatal."+ He gives instances of his killing large elephants at a single shot, and seems to have had no difficulty with the "king of beasts," which he has slain "in every stage from whelphood to imbecility." According to Captain Cornwallis Harris, travelling through countries infested by wild beasts is not so dangerous as it is commonly thought to be. He says, indeed, that during part of his journey, "scarcely a day passed without our seeing two or three lions, but, like the rest of the animal creation, they uniformly * * Wild Sports of Southern Africa, by Captain William Cornwallis Harris. London, 1839. The specific gravity of a ball is increased by compression. Those made for the public service are hardened and weighted by compres sion. 6 retreated when disturbed by the approach of man. However troublesome we found the intrusions of the feline race during the night, they seldom at any other time shewed the least disposition to molest us unless we commenced hostilities." He, however, does justice to the terrors of the maned monarch when he says, "those who have seen him in crippling captivity only-immured in a cage barely double his own length, with his sinews relaxed by confinement-have seen but the shadow of that animal which clears the desert with his rolling eye!"" There !—with that roar we dismiss the monsters-carrion, after all, saving wild-boar hams, buffalo steaks, and stewed elephant's feet, of the peculiar delicacy of which we presume not to speak! A sly shot in a walled park-though it is not sporting-were worth fifty such broiling adventures. Reader, cast thine eye across the page-see with what a temptation the young Bard of Avon was beset, and thou wilt forgive him from thy soul, though he was a poacher. Thou smackest thy lips like an alderman of the old school, or a common councilman of the new-thy thoughts are of venison only -natural enough, for the idea of sport is associated with something wild. Well! statelier horns are hidden only by a few intervening leaves. Let us pass through the inclosure in which these spotted creatures lie; and, at one bound northwards, we will land you where-one or other of them— Trout and salmon, grouse and deer, There are only three kinds of deer in Great Britain, the red, the fallow, and the roe. The fallow-deer, distinguished from the rest by his dappled* sides and palmated horns, was the dun-deer of the days of Robin Hood-the fat-buck of the pasty-loving friar-and he is still the common deer of our English parks. When firing at a deer, the aim should be low behind the shoulder, or at the head. It is not usual to fire at a deer which faces the gun. If near enough to aim correctly, the rifleman cannot do better than send a ball through the neck, close under the ears. It may be remarked here, that the There is a variety not spotted. last is the quickest mode of dispatching a dog, horse, or any other domestic animal. When a deer is wounded and separates from the herd one or two dogs should be instantly slipped. The modern terms applied to the male and female fallow-deer are buck and doe, and to the young ones fauns. To roe-deer; buck and doe, and the young ones kids. The mature red-deer, of whatever age, is termed by the forest-keeper and deer-stalker a hart, by the hunter a stag, the female is a hind, and the young ones are calces. The red-deer is not properly a hart until his sixth year, or until he has attained his full-head, which is when each beam is furnished with brow, bay and tray antlers, and not fewer than two points at the top. In olden times, when to be discovered at " dogdraw" or "stable-stand,"* in a forest, chase, or purlieu, was as perilous to the personal freedom of the individual, as if he had attempted the life of the lord of the soil, the country swarmed with officers whose titles and duties are all but forgotten, such as agistors, bow-bearers, wood-wards, wardens, foresters, rangers, regarders, verderors, all of whom were in some way connected with the preservation of vert and venison. The technical terms for every thing connected with forests and deer were innumerable, and entered into the common language of life, as did afterwards the falconer's terms. The ceremonies too * Dog-draw, in the ancient language of the chase, signified the tracking, or drawing after deer with a hound or other dog. Stablestand was the act of standing in ambush with a bow and arrow, and with deer hounds in leash ready to slip. |